OWENSBORO, Ky. (6/15/14) — Gina Newton-Dunlap never got to see the greenhouse where her father raised vegetables, but she remembers the story of how it led to a chance meeting with her mother.

She lost her father to cancer when she was just 11. The greenhouse was lost to war.

Gina was an unlikely farmer. Raised in Munich, Germany, she spent most of her life in large cities. She trained in business.

She moved to the United States in 1965 after marrying an American soldier. She worked in accounting for 20 years. She and her husband were working for the same company when both lost their jobs to downsizing.

They were looking for a change, and they found it on a farm in Reynolds Station. They began raising flowers and vegetables.

“I love to be around the flowers,” she said. “They just kind of smile at you.”

It was her vegetable garden that led her to join the Farmers’ Market about 10 years ago.

“I always had extra vegetables, so I brought them to the market,” Newton-Dunlap said.

Her business is called Gina’s Greenhouse, but she also sells herbs, eggs and canned goods. She still uses her accounting skills serving as the treasurer for the Farmers’ Market.

You have to believe her father would be proud.

“I think about him when I think about how I went from accounting to The Farmers’ Market. I think someone was pushing me a little bit.”